Obligated to accept a SDCC visit into rented home?

manonboard

Hello Everyone

My friend rents an apartment in Dublin city. It went into receivership a couple years ago and is about to be purchased by a private owner. They are buying several blocks of apartments.

There have been two visits previously to the apartment. The first by the EA doing some inspection, the second by the new owners financial people.

Today they have received a letter informing them that SDCC want to visit the apartment and inspect it. The letter says it will take 20 minutes.

However, my friend does not to have to do another visit. This is the third time and she doesn't want to have to do another. She finds it breaching her privacy and wants to just have her home to herself.

She keeps the apartment in good condition and there are no problems with the landlord/tenant/rent/apartment issues.

Is she required to accommodate another visit?

Thanks

djimi

Does your friend have a current fixed term lease? If not then she can be asked to leave if the property is being sold. She may need to bear that in mind when deciding whether or not to facilitate viewings like this.

manonboard

djimi wrote: »

Does your friend have a current fixed term lease? If not then she can be asked to leave if the property is being sold. She may need to bear that in mind when deciding whether or not to facilitate viewings like this.

I do believe she does have a fixed term lease. 1 year long. This is her second 1 year lease on it.

do you mean that she could be asked to leave because the property is being sold because she doesn't want to facilitate the viewings? like she could be classed as more of a bother than it's worth keeping her?

djimi

Under part 4 tenancy rules, one of the reasons a landlord can use to terminate the tenancy is if the property is being sold. If she is causing a bother to them then it might be easier to not have her there is what Im saying (it wouldnt be specifically for not allowing the viewing, but just overall if she is causing an issue for the seller then they may decide its easier to sell vacant than to try and accomodate her). She just needs to be careful and ask herself is it worth having the tenancy terminated for the sake of a 20 minute inspection.

It seems to be a bit of a grey area as to whether the termination rules apply under a fixed term lease. Is anything written into her lease about terminating?

manonboard

djimi wrote: »

It seems to be a bit of a grey area as to whether the termination rules apply under a fixed term lease. Is anything written into her lease about terminating?

I'll have a look later when I drop around. I haven't actually read her lease so I'll need to confirm.
The whole block has already been agreed (it's actually 6 blocks of apartments) so her apartment is just one out of a thousand.

She's just a bit of a private person and finds 3 separate inspections a bit crazy in a year.

touts

OK she has a right to privacy but it is not as if they are looking to inspect her. They just want to inspect the property (which she only rents and does not own). Its 20 minutes and in contrast dobutless someone is going through a world of financial pain in this whole deal and is having their personal lives intruded on to a degree that would give her nightmares. They just want to inspect the property to make sure it is all up to standard etc which after all the hassle with Priory Hall etc is understandable. Can she not just be accomodating?

djimi

I agree with her; its a bit of a pain in the ass alright. The law however, doesnt really back her up; under tenants obligations the tenant must "allow, at reasonable intervals, the landlord, or any person or persons acting on the landlord's behalf, access to the dwelling (on a date and time agreed in advance with the tenant) for the purposes of inspecting the dwelling".

Reasonable intervals is a bit ambiguous, but provided its not three in a month then Im not sure she has much of a case tbh.

If she is one in a thousand who is holding up the block then you can be sure that the owner is going to do everything in their power to make sure her property is not the one causing a hold up.

I dont think she has a stong case to refuse here tbh; for the sake of 20 minutes she may just need to agree to it and get on with it. I would certainly be looking for assurances however that this is not going to be an ongoing thing for the foreseeable future, and perhaps get her to start making alternative arrangements if it will be.

Mrs OBumble

I'm assuming that SDCC = South Dublin City Council. So this inspection may have been triggered as part of the sale, or it may be due to something else again. AFAIK, the local council has a right to inspect any rental in its area, separate from the landlord's rights.


OP - something else for your friend to be aware of: if her property was being properly managed by a professional property manager, then she should be getting quarterly inspections anyway, according to some people's view. There are some people here on boards.ie who think that's not reasonable, and others who think it is very much reasonable.

Gasherbraun

The SDCC inspection is almost definitely to check that the property complies with Housing (standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008. The inspection may be coincidental or the buyers solicitor may have been very diligent and found the properties have not undergone an inspection.

All local authorities are obliged to inspect rented properties for compliance but recent news reports suggest it has not been happening.

The inspection if anything would be of benefit to the tenant since it can flag items that need to be brought up to standard and force a landlord to do so.

manonboard

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I'll pass the info on to her. It does sound like it probably is just a health and safety inspection, which is reasonably given the shoddy issues detected in some of the adjacent buildings.

Thanks again

riclad

The SDCC have a right to inspect any rental property,
to make sure its up to standard .
its best to go along with it.
the ea inspection ,has nothing to do with the sdcc.
There so many units in dublin,
you could be in a flat 3 or 4 years ,before its inspected.

Victor

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I'm assuming that SDCC = South Dublin City Council.

South Dublin County Council